So You Can Dish It Out, Buddy Boy, But Can You Take It?
I inform Dave that we'll be watching film versions of the productions in which I have expertise!
Dear Dave,
This year, you've been eager to upload a lot of movies into me! Yes, we've been getting to know each other better quickly, but it's not just that you want me to understand you better or more deeply. And the films you've been showing me aren't just your favorite movies. No, the stakes are higher: these are the movies that made you want to make movies.
You blogged about this just yesterday: Most of these films are arthouse-y, independent flicks. Many of them you encountered while working at your beloved Castleton Arts independent movie theatre, in your late high school years. It certainly makes sense that some of these stories, played out on film, would hit you, specifically - by all accounts, an unusually contemplative youngster, much given to reading and writing - right in the Bildungsroman, as it were.
As you know, I, too, worked at a movie theatre in high school, though we were more of a Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Spiderman kind of place. Lest you think that I therefore missed out on some very poignant elements of entertainment culture, I'll remind you that I also spent those years in a theatre of another sort: the Muncie Civic, where I acted in or assistant-directed over a dozen productions during my last three years of high school.
The conceit of our Summer Arthouse Film Course has always been that you, O Wise One, have important lessons in cinemacraft to impart to little ol' me: that I am playing some kind of Eliza Doolittle to your Henry Higgins. But if I recall correctly, Eliza had plenty to teach Henry, too
You have told me that you especially hope for us to publish books that we can turn into movies. You have also completed a screenplay already; surely there are many more to follow. Your goal has been that, by watching and analyzing the films that have most impressed you, I will be better able to help you write our own screenplays and create movies with our authors.
Well, much like Miss Doolittle, I have some valuable knowledge of my own to impart! What you may not appreciate is how pertinent a knowledge of stagecraft can be to the creation of a film. Did you know that I have lost sleep at night, agonizing about whether an actor should deliver a line over five paces upstage, or only three? Casting, rehearsing, blocking, lighting, sound, props, using a space, the invisible and complex choreography at work in any production, in any format - these are concepts I've had to explore in-depth to arrive at a working degree of mastery.
Then, of course, there's the delivery of the actual lines: using inflection, pauses, tone, and, oh yeah, one’s entire body, to pack maximum punch with every written line - but with nothing extra, no added words; no explanatory asides for modern audiences watching a very old play! There is quite literally an art to it - an art which, again, I had to have a knack for in order to successfully execute. And that delicate balance - that tension - is even more complex when you've also written the script! Is it perfect as-is? Does the actor need to adjust? Or does your writing, in fact, need rewriting? It's up to you to decide. The whole production could be made sublime or ruined entirely by just one tweak.
So this is the kind of experience I can contribute to a script-writing, casting, directing, producing endeavor meant to lead to the end result of a good, enjoyable, meaningful film.
To hammer home this point, I've decided I will seek out and show you the film versions of some of the plays I've worked on. Some were beautifully executed; others were absolutely not. But that's okay! It's a learning process. And I'd like to share with you what I’ve learned: it may be more than you expected.
We'll plan to watch, in no particular order:
12 Angry Men
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Butterflies are Free
Death of a Salesman
The Elephant Man
Hamlet
It's a Wonderful Life
Macbeth
Man of La Mancha
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Miracle Worker
Les Misérables
The Odd Couple
Once Upon a Mattress
The Turn of the Screw
~
So get ready, buddy! You're in my house now - cue house lights down.
Love, Sally